O'BRIEN, William Smith - Principles of Government - First Edition (1856)

Dublin: James Duffy, 7 Wellington Quay, 1856. First edition. Two volumes. Vol. I: preliminaries, viii, 388 pp., with terminal blanks; Vol. II: preliminary leaves, 380 pp., with terminal blanks. 8vo, 22 × 14.5 cm. Contemporary green half calf over marbled paper boards, spines ruled and decorated in gilt with red morocco lettering-pieces, volume numbers gilt, plain edges. Armorial bookplate of James Behan Murtagh to the front pastedown of each volume, bearing an Irish-language motto. Both volumes subsequently from a Capuchin Franciscan library, with circular O.F.M. Cap. stamps to the pastedowns, title pages and terminal leaves, and an additional stamp to the upper board of volume II. Bindings rubbed and scuffed, with wear at the spine ends and corners; hinges weakened but boards holding. Foxing is most noticeable to the preliminary and terminal leaves, extending approximately 20–30 leaves into each end, with the central text generally substantially cleaner. Complete in two volumes.

Principles of Government; or, Meditations in Exile is William Smith O’Brien’s principal work of political thought. O’Brien, a leading figure of the Young Ireland movement and leader of the failed 1848 rising, was convicted of high treason and transported to Van Diemen’s Land. The greater part of the work was written during his Tasmanian exile between 1850 and 1854 and completed after his conditional pardon, before publication in 1856.

Across the two volumes O’Brien considers the structure and limits of government, legislative and executive power, education, religious instruction, finance, justice, military and naval administration, foreign affairs, trade and colonial government. Of particular interest is his treatment of the Australian colonies and Indigenous peoples: modern scholarship has singled out his discussion of colonial government and Aboriginal rights as an unusually substantial contemporary reflection on the responsibilities of imperial and colonial authority. 

This copy has an attractive Irish provenance, with the armorial bookplate of James Behan Murtagh in both volumes, followed by ownership of a Capuchin Franciscan library, evidenced by repeated O.F.M. Cap. stamps.